Rogue Fratello
by TTIO
Summary: A new handler joins the Agency, and seems to be against the way the girls are treated. Soon enough, the new fratello is missing. It is up to Triela, Hilshire, Henrietta and Jose to track them down... -- Discontinued. This was doomed from the start.
1. The Social Welfare Agency

**Chapter 1 - The Social Welfare Agency**

Alcide looked around. This was his workplace now. Clean, formal, almost like an office. Too... Normal. It hardly showed the true nature of the organisation that lay within its walls. Only the courtyard outside and the dormitories of the girls betrayed what it actually was, and you wouldn't get anywhere near them unless you were a handler, or a trusted member of the agency.

---ooo000ooo---

Until just a few short months ago, Alcide had been just some guy living on the streets, begging to make enough money to live another day. But he had some friends. He knew where to go if he was in trouble, and what to do if the situation ever arose. He knew the best places to scavenge, where people were generous, and so on. Then, one day, it all changed.

It was a seemingly ordinary day, the money coming in a quite a good rate though, when he chanced upon a man wearing a very smart suit and tie. With him was a small girl, nearing adolescence maybe, and carrying an AMATI violin case. 'Now,' he thought, 'this guy must be rich. He might give me enough money to last a week or more!' He decided to ask him, but in the depths of his mind a sliver of doubt grew. However, Alcide suppressed it and walked with calm calculation over to the man in the suit.

"Spare some money, my friend?" He asked, with a smile that was hard to resist. The girl looked surprised, and started to pull something from her belt, but seemed to think better of it and stopped. She had short, brown hair that stopped just above her shoulder, and was wearing what seemed to be a school uniform. 'Strange,' he thought, 'considering that its the holidays right now...' But he shook this aside and looked back towards the man.

He could see the man's face now, a young face with again short hair, this time black. His green suit clearly showed his wealth, along with the fact that the girl who was obviously with him was carrying an AMATI violin case - not something common people would care to spend money on. The sun, coming from behind him, obscured Alcide's view of him, but he saw enough.

"And why should I give you something?" the man asked, in an amused voice, "Tell me." He had the air of someone who knows that he has power, and isn't often in such a situation, Alcide thought. How wrong he was.

"Well..." he faltered. "Surely you want to help your fellow human?" an instant of inspiration came to him. "You have everything you need, money, a family... But I have nothing."

"What makes you think I'm rich?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Alcide wondered how such a man could ever have gotten rich, but continued anyway, "Look, you're wearing an obviously expensive suit, and your daughter has an AMATI violin case! AMATI instruments aren't exactly cheap you know..." he trailed off. The man laughed.

"You think... Well it makes sense, I suppose. My name is Jose by the way. Anyway, I will help you, but not by giving you money. I know the perfect place for you. Have you heard of the Public Welfare Agency?"

---ooo000ooo---

So Jose brought him to the Social Welfare Agency. He had explained about Henrietta and the others, about how they were cyborgs, biomechanically engineered to become killing machines so that they could do the government's dirty work. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about all of this, they were just young girls after all. But he accepted it.

Now he had his own girl to teach and look after, whom he had named Isabella, he knew that he couldn't leave. Even if he hated her, she had no choice but to love him, and he had seen that in the case of Henrietta and Jose it had grown to a true feeling instead of just a conditioned response. He wished a similar thing for him and Isabella - not a forced relationship but an optional one.

So he stayed, albeit against his better judgement.

"Alcide! Alcide!" Isabella's voice drifted into the room, with the owner following close behind. Alcide turned to face her, grinning wildly.

"Hey there Isabella! I'm guessing you want to go to the shooting grounds?" He felt dread that such an innocent-looking girl may actually want to do such a thing, but hid it beneath a veil of false joy.

"Well, actually... I, um, wanted to..." she stopped. At this, Alcide relaxed. It seemed that Isabella didn't want to go to the shooting grounds, which was definitely a good sign in his opinion.

"Yes?"

"Do you mind if... um..." she seemed scared to say what was on her mind.

"Go on," Alcide said, smiling in an attempt to encourage her.

"If..." She seemed to have regained some of her confidence, as she went on this time, "we go to a museum or something like that?" she looked hopeful. Alcide smiled. Was this what she had wanted all along? Perhaps the conditioning had had less of an effect than he had thought...

"Of course I don't mind," he said after a short pause. He smiled. Isabella smiled as well.

---ooo000ooo---

Had anyone looked upon the dormitories that night, they would have seen two figures leaving the building. One tall, one much shorter, the tall one leading and clearly knowing his way around. They would have seen the first figure move quickly, as if it was determined to reach its destination as soon as possible, with the other trailing behind, a reluctance in its steps.

But no-one did.


	2. Missing Fratello, Quiet Investigation

**Chapter2 - Missing Fratello, Quiet Investigation**

Triela got up. She thought that she had heard something... But all was silent now, save for the unusually heavy breathing of Claes, who slept above her. The lights in the room were still on, but she took no notice of this. 'It must have been nothing,' she thought, 'but now that I'm up, I may as well get a drink.'

It was 3:00AM, and as such no-one was up but her. The seemingly endless corridors were dark, lit only by the moonlight passing through an occasional window. A seed of fear had been planted in her mind, and now it started to grow. 'Snap out of it, Triela," she told herself, "the dark is nothing to be afraid of." But even so, she walked freely only in the open, where the light was not a rare commodity. Upon returning to her room, Triela decided that she would go and see Isabella, the newest girl in the agency and her now good friend.

It was not a rare thing for the girls at the agency to become friends with each other as their only human contact was with each other, members of the agency, and people that they worked with on missions. So Triela's strong friendship with Isabella coming into existence within just a few months was to be expected.

Even so, some members of the agency, and particularly Hilshire, took special notice of this, and sometimes seemed to be even scared by it. Triela was an observant girl, and so she realised this, but took no notice.

She arrived at the room, the room that used to belong to Elsa - who had been killed in an ambush a few months before, which left Isabella to sleep alone unlike the other girls.

It would have been natural for anyone to expect Isabella to be asleep, and this was indeed what Triela had expected. But as she turned on the lights, Triela saw no-one - the room had even been emptied of all Isabella's belongings. There was but one thing left in the room that showed any sign that Isabella had lived there. A note.

"I have thought about this organisation in the few months I have been here," it said, "and have decided to leave, along with Isabella. What we are doing is simply not right, and we must stop. I don't care if this costs me my life, but I must end this now.

Yours, Alcide"

Below this was a single word written in Isabella's handwriting. "Sorry"

---ooo000ooo---

Hilshire was having a hard time keeping everything together. He and Jose had been assigned to the "Alcide/Isabella investigation", to try and find them and bring them back. But Jose had little experience of such things, and Triela was entirely useless due to her emotional attachment to Isabella. He had only Henrietta to help him out, and even she was unable to do the bulk of the work, not understanding the complexity of the situation fully.

But he did still have a few leads. He knew, for example, where Alcide used to live and beg when he was on the streets as well as his previous friends. He had decided that the best thing to do would be to split up, Triela and him checking one place whilst Henrietta and Jose tried somewhere else, as although Jose didn't know how to handle an investigation he did know how to interrogate.

So here he was. Out on the streets searching, not helped by Triela, for Alcide's old friends. So far, he had thought that he had caught sight of someone who could be one of the people that he was looking for, but he claimed that he was not.

Jose was certain that this guy was hiding something. He could tell it from his body language. He was with one of Alcide's old friends, at the place they used to meet up, and couldn't shake off the feeling that this man was lying to him.

"I'll ask you one last time," he said, "before you force me to resort to violence. Where would Alcide go?" he levelled his gun at the man whilst Henrietta stood behind him, watching.

"Why do you want to know?" he replied, shrinking back in terror.

"That is none of your buisness," he said forcefully, now pushing the gun into the man's chest. "Now tell me."

"OK!" he screamed, "Fine! I'll tell you whatever you want, just don't kill me!" He collapsed into a heap on the floor, sobbing wildly.

"I knew we'd get through to you into the end," Jose said. "Now, where would Alcide most likely go?"

---ooo000ooo---

It was damp, and cold. The only source of light was the moon and the occasional passing train, which would drown out their speech. The pair were hiding beneath a bridge in the hope that they would not be found, as Alcide strongly believed that they would be killed if such a thing happened.

"So..." Isabella said, "What... What now? We got away from the agency, I think. But I don't remember a life outside there."

"That's the first thing to do then. To get your memory back."

"But... How?" she asked uncertainly.

"Think back," Alcide replied. "Retrace your memories, as you would your steps. Take your time though." In response to this, Isabella concentrated, but on what Alcide could not tell. After a minute, she stopped.

"So?" Alcide asked. Isabella shook her head. "Well..."

"Why don't I try again?"

"Go on then. What do you see...?"

A house, in Rome, and a room. My room. Posters, of all manner of things, hanging neatly on light green walls. A pure white window overlooking a busy street on what appeared to be a market day. The door opens, and a boy steps in. Her brother.

"Hey, come on Isabella!" he says, "Mum says that we can go to the market!" A look of joy on his face. Stalls, colours the likes of which I have never seen before. Awe, and wonder. Countless delights stretching as far as the eye can see, dotting the numerous stalls like lights along a path.

Sorrow, as the fun ends. "We need to return" The words echoing in my head, but there is more sadness to come. Inside the house. Noise. A bang, an explosion? Death. Destruction. Black.

"Did you remember anything this time?" Alcide asked again.

Again Isabella shook her head, betraying the trust of her master for the first time in her life...


End file.
